Today was 25 degrees, humid and fine for most of the day. We hadn’t planned to do nearly as much, and we had a more leisurely start in the morning. At about 9.30am we took our trusty 88 bus all of two stops to Vauxhall station, and then train-ed all of a couple of stops to Green Park station. We exited Green Park at the Princess Diana fountain - just north of Buckingham Palace. Here we met a lovely “walking tour” guide, who took us all around the palaces and then into the Westminster district.

She was well versed in all matters relating to the royal family and monarch history, and kept the attention of us adults and the two older kids for the best part of two and a half hours. Some of the interesting facts included:
• The Horseguard Cavalry (they’re the guys often on horseback wearing black bearskin hats) are no ceremonial actors. They’re all elite British soldiers in active service, drawn for a period into service to act as the Queen’s personal bodyguard. Their bayonet assault rifles often carry live ammunition – it depends on the occasion. When marching past Buckingham Palace they all turn their heads to the palace both to show respect and also to show they’re attentive to any trouble.
• The Queen rarely stays at Buckingham Palace – usually only when in London to open parliament or take part in ceremonial duties. Her royal standard (different to the UK flag) will fly at whichever residence she’s staying at (usually Windsor Castle).
• Buckingham Palace itself is quite plain looking compared to other royal residences (think Hampton Court Palace or Windsor Castle). It was originally designed as a large house, and was then extended significantly over the years, but in keeping with its humble origins.
• St James’ palace is the official (although obviously not the principal) residence of the sovereign, and the most senior royal palace in Britain (yes they have a ranking). The palace houses all the officials who organise the affairs of the royals.

Upon conclusion of the tour (you can pay whatever you want) we wandered up to Regent St for lunch, and the kids checked out the toy shop Hamleys, which they loved.

After spending an hour there we made our way to Hyde Park for ice-creams, and the kids spent ages on the only park playground (decent but nothing special). The place was so multi-cultural that Zach and Annie told us that they’d made friends with a couple of kids from Saudi Arabia. Most interesting though were the numbers of nannies there. Whilst most looked from South East Asia, in a neat reversal of historical roles there was one white nanny looking after African kids. There were also three nannies in uniform supporting a mother of two children!

It was so relaxing lying on the grass in the shade, that I had a short nap, before rounding up the troupe for the trip home, although I diverted and went shopping for a pasta meal in.